The last few days have seen a litany of proposals, both from the White House controlled by Donald Trump and from a Congress controlled by a Republican majority, that are aimed at the benefits of federal and postal employees. It is time for mail handlers across the country to pay attention and take action, lest these proposals ever get adopted or implemented.

On May 23, 2017, the Trump Administration released its budget for Fiscal Year 2018. Called “A New Foundation for American Greatness,” the budget supports what can only be called catastrophic reductions in spending on the pension benefits currently enjoyed by all federal and postal employees, including all mail handlers.

For active postal employees who participate in the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), the Trump budget calls for gradually equalizing contributions made by employees (including mail handlers) and the Postal Service, which effectively would be up to a six percent (6%) cut in pay over the next six years, depending on precisely when an employee was first hired.

For active postal employees participating in FERS or in the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), the Trump budget calls for reducing pension benefits for future retirees by basing annuities on an employee’s average pay over five years (high-5) instead of over three years (high-3). The proposal also would terminate the “Social Security supplement” that covers the gap for workers who retire under FERS before they qualify for Social Security benefits at age 62.

For current and future retirees, the Trump budget calls for the elimination of cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) for annuitants under FERS (which covers any employee hired after 1984). For those under the Civil Service Retirement System, COLAs would be reduced by one-half of 1 percent (that is, 0.5 percent) each and every year. These changes, if adopted, would destroy the financial well-being of retirees who rely on annual COLAs to keep up with the cost of living.

The full scope of these proposals – called both terrible and cruel by various political leaders – are probably dead on arrival in the Congress. But it will take a lot of hard work to ensure that no portion of these proposals, however small, finds its way into any legislation that passes the Congress.

With regard to the Postal Service itself, the Trump budget is no wiser or kinder. It calls for $46 billion in cuts over the next decade, and proposes reductions in the frequency of mail delivery and in door-to-door delivery, and the cuts in mail processing that would accompany such changes.

“The Trump budget is an embarrassment, and should be opposed by all thoughtful Members on Capitol Hill. There is no basis for cutting retirement benefits; nor is there any reason to reduce any services provided the Postal Service. Fortunately, the existing coalition of postal stakeholders (unions, management, and mailers) already has identified legislation that would fix many of the Postal Service’s financial issues, and the entire Trump budget can simply be ignored as not worthy of serious consideration.”

Notably, the Trump budget does not attack only federal and postal employees, but also takes aim at Medicaid, children’s health, food stamps, student loans, and Social Security disability programs, among others. Even the NLRB faces massive cuts in its budget, reducing the protections that the Board provides for workers and their unions and the entire collective bargaining process.

As if not wanting to be outdone by the Trump budget, certain Members of Congress also have introduced and supported other unacceptable proposals. For just one example, on May 24, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 1293, on an unrecorded voice vote, to require the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to submit annual reports on the use of official time by federal employee representatives. This is a thinly-veiled attempt to attack unions representing federal employees, and demonstrates the anti-union and anti-worker atmosphere that permeates large portions of Congress.

All mail handlers are encouraged to contact their Congressional representatives and to stay actively aware of the evolving legislative process.

The first day of the Conference was very informative. Key Speakers included General President of LIUNA- Terry O’Sullivan; AFL-CIO National President- Richard Trumka; NPMHU Legislative and Political Director- Robert Losi; Congresswoman Rosa Delauro (D-CT) sponsor of H.R. 784; Congressman Gerald Connolly; Senator Jon Tester (D-Mt); Congressman Jose Serrano (D-NY); Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Ma) addressed the attendees on the second day of the Conference and discussed postal banking in depth. She also mentioned that the USPS can implement basic postal banking without any authorization from Congress, since it already has the authority to do so.

The main elements discussed during the Conference were the 82 pending closures and consolidations of postal facilities across the Country, and the recent reductions to the delivery service standards of first class, and other mail classifications. In order to be able to close these facilities, the USPS needed to change the overnight delivery standards of local 1st class mail, since the original standards would be impossible to meet once the closures were implemented. Since the service standard changes were made, delivery of mail all over the country has been delayed. In many areas 3 to 5 day mail deliveries were delayed 30 to 40%

The USPS has had a steady growth in revenue for nearly 3 years in almost all classes of mail. Since the volume of mail and postal revenue is increasing, it makes no sense to continue the path of reduction and destruction the USPS is currently on. Both H. Res. 54 and H.R. 784 were introduced in the House of Representatives. Both of these pieces of legislation are designed to return delivery service standards to what they were, before the USPS began reducing them. The legislation is needed to help keep the USPS competitive, and to slow down, or prevent more closures and consolidations. The USPS will lose much of the revenue it has recently gained if delivery standards continue to decline, delaying more and more mail.

If you have not done so, please contact your Congressional Representative and urge him or her to co-sponsor H. Res. 54, and H.R. 784. You can find out if they are already a co-sponsor at the Legislative Center on the NPMHU website, or at congress.gov.

Local 302 attendees had 14 scheduled appointments with our Congressional Representatives for May 13, 2015. Information was dropped off at a handful of the offices that were not on the appointment schedule as well. We even managed a photo op with Senator Boxer. This is her last term in office since she will be retiring in 2016. We talked at length about postal growth in revenue, the ill-sighted proposed closures and consolidations, and the negative impact the reduction of service standards has caused in the delay of mail delivery all over the country. Overall the Conference was a success, with many members of Congress showing their support for H.Res. 54 and H.R. 784. Local 302 is continuing to follow-up with our members of Congress who have not signed on to these key pieces of legislation. Some Representatives have let us know that they will be adding their names to the list of co-sponsors on both bills.

As of this report, USPS has announced a temporary moratorium on further closures and consolidations. The postal service will be retaining North Bay, Redding, and Eureka for the time being. We feel that this change in action, however temporary, has been due in part to the effort on the part of all 4 unions to educate and inform Congressional Representatives and the public, and also from the support of many in Congress who are putting the pressure on the postal service elites to do the right thing and protect the USPS and its service to the people of the United States.

We will continue our efforts to “save the postal service”, and will do everything we can to stop the dismantling and destruction of one of the last great institutions that provides good service to every American, and provides our employees with decent “middle class” careers.